Have you ever tried sports betting?

Question

abc3643 · Answer

I did when I was a kid in the 1970s. But that was horse / harness racing... I grew up on Long Island and so there were some racetracks in the NYC area. Indeed, I was born near Aqueduct Racetrack and parents were raised walking distance from it. So "playing the ponies" is something I learned young and, as I got older, my dad would place bets for me. When I was old enough to drive and legally bet on my own, I did sometimes, but only at the track. But, as a teen, we had OTB (Off-Track Betting) and I went with my dad or people we knew. Never a lot of money. For me, I was strictly a $2 bettor.

I don't bet on actual human sports now although, 29 years ago, I did play in office pools for March Madness and NCAA Div 1 Men's Hockey (and won both!).

About 19 years ago, I got involved in a NFL fantasy football situation introduced to me by a kid I worked with. However, things changed in the middle of the fantasy season and I said you can't do that, so I became disillusioned. I came in last too, but that's besides the point.

Generally, I don't gamble because it is addictive and I know my own potential addictions, so I don't get involved.

I am vehemently against gambling being advertised or gambling institutions being sponsors. It is the very antithesis of something we should be doing as a society. Don't get me wrong: I accept gambling as activity - life is a gamble and much of civilization is de facto gambling - but I don't want people to be encouraged to throw away their money.

And, recently, I discovered something truly evil: The gambling firms are using AI to target people likely to gamble - and lose - a lot.

From the NY Times last month...
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/19/business/draftkings-ai.html

Times Investigation

How DraftKings Uses A. I. to Target the Gamblers Likeliest to Lose
Data science helps determine who receives betting incentives, but the company has resisted using similar technology to protect gamblers at risk of addiction.

By Alex KlavensWalt Bogdanich and Jenny Vrentas

The reporters obtained internal documents and interviewed dozens of former DraftKings employees, many of whom worried that the company’s efforts were harming problem gamblers.
Sept. 19, 2026

About a year into his job as a data analyst at DraftKings, Jayden Butts received a new assignment.

The online gambling giant was spending hundreds of millions of dollars every year on promotional incentives: “Free” betting money advertised through emails and phone alerts. But the company knew little about their effectiveness.

So in 2023, DraftKings took customer betting records and built a machine learning model, a form of artificial intelligence that seeks patterns in data, to answer the question: Who was more likely to respond to promotions by gambling — and losing — more?

Mr. Butts’s task was to test that model, prioritizing free bets and bonuses for those likely losers. Soon, a question began to gnaw at him: Aren’t many of these same people prone to addiction? “We are looking for traits and features that we can target that indicate a good investment,” he said. By strict financial logic, “the best investment would be a problem gambler.”

...

Mr. Butts and five other former DraftKings employees who worked on promotional targeting told The Times they regretted building technology they now viewed as dangerous.

“It is as predatory as it sounds,” said a former DraftKings analyst who, like many interviewed for this article, requested anonymity because he feared retribution. “If you lose more, we give you more, so you keep playing more.” He quit in 2024.

...

In 2018, when the Supreme Court ruled that states could legalize online sports gambling, it ushered in a new era in which betting has moved beyond casinos and racetracks. Professional sports games are now saturated with celebrity advertisements, encouraging people to wager on their phones.

DraftKings and its rival FanDuel dominate this new industry, which has expanded into online casino games and, more recently, prediction markets. DraftKings says it has 11 million customers, compared with five million in 2022.

...

One former DraftKings data scientist who worked on promotions, Jacob Shulkin, said that they were effective because they take advantage of gamblers’ psychology. “I feel I’m getting free money,” he said, “but really it’s dragging me back in.”

...

The core question was, “Is this person going to give us more than we’re giving them?” Mr. Butts said. “And if the answer is yes, open the floodgates.”

...

Figuring this out required machine learning. Unlike traditional data analytics, where researchers decide which patterns to look for, machine learning models can sift through hundreds of variables on their own to find combinations that help predict particular behaviors.

...

One former employee said he had worked on a system that looked for people at risk of leaving the platform and tried to coax them back. Another said he helped develop a program that ramped up promotions for people gambling more aggressively than usual.

Two other former analysts who worked on targeting projects told The Times that they independently raised concerns with their superiors that these models would identify vulnerable gamblers as promotional targets, and asked to put protections in place.

Both received the same response: no.

...

==========

It's a long article, but worth it.

So, remember that: In modern American capitalism, you aren't even customers to large companies anymore; instead, they are predators and you are prey. And AI is helping them kill you more easily.

rachel776 · Answer

we bet on the Kentucky Derby and if the horse continues toward the Triple Crown (not necessarily the horse we had first bet on) we continue betting

we also bet very heavily on some Grand Slam tennis matches, we lost a bundle at Wimbledon last year

Telekinetic-Potato · Answer

It's like how's I know the yanks would beat the red Sox twice and then bomb a game?

You guys wanna know a sports betting secret? Plug obscure tennis matches into chat gpt. Actually it's kinda mean if too many people know about it now that I think about it. Anyway the right number of people should be able to figure out the rest. My hint is uhhh... When you find the right match it will be pretty obvious.

MrChinaski · Answer

This is a good read. Sadly it's behind a paywall.

emeraldsaphire · Answer

Never officially; I don't care about sports, but a guy once invited me to a Super Bowl party. I made a bet and lost. I didn't wager any money, or anything like that, so I kind of enjoyed losing.

NathanDavis · Answer

if you mean, money gambling with cash on a third party... nope but among friends, yes... we often make our pools on some tourneys and finals

7Phoenix7 · Answer

Never have… I’m not knowledgeable enough about sports teams to be doing any of that lol…

Nikki1989 · Answer

Nah. I hate sports, and I very rarely gamble.

DryGermanGuy · Answer

No, thanks. I know a bit about German football, but that's a sure way to lose your money.

tiredpanda · Answer

Yeah once… I won a bit over 50 euros lol. It was a big amount of money then lol

shish_kebab · Answer

No because I wouldn't have a clue who to bet on.

Anonymous · Answer

Yes. In high-school. I had to give two players a special treat from the winning team in payment for losing

Iron_Man · Answer

Yes, simple bets in Las Vegas on the football games when I was there. not very much money spent betting and I mostly won

AdolfWuzRight · Answer

All sports are in. Ed with betting. The house always wins

queenofcardio · Answer

Never and I wouldn't.

lilBigPotato · Answer

Nope and don't plan on changing that.

Abbycado · Answer

No, I’d be absolutely horrible at it.

Have you ever tried sports betting?

What Girls & Guys Said

Have you ever played gamble?

Have you ever tried sports betting?

What Girls & Guys Said

Have you ever played gamble?

We're glad to see you liked this post.